29 Comments

Sorry you burned you're selfs. But if it happens: Cover the burned area with butter or margarine INMEDIATELLY after and you WONT get a blister and it will calm the hurt.
This is for a "fast touch" burn. BUT if your skin had longer contact with the heat/hot surface: put the burned area in contact w ICE or ICE WATER to STOP the heat to keep burning the affected area. Hope I could help for IF and WHEN. :)

There's a cheap, fantastic "burn cream" found everywhere in NYC's Chinatown, called "Ching Wan Hung," by Great Wall Brand. I apply this at once and cover with a bandage, and it shortens the pain and recovery time considerably. Once the burn cream is no longer needed, I apply a little vitamin E from a capsule.

Right after it happens, cut open a tomato and squeeze the slimy, seed part onto your burn and rub it in a little. This helps it heal faster and the burn is never as bad as it would be without doing it.

We have aloe vera growing everywhere ... I am contantly burning things and chopping bits off and banging into stuff. And that's SOBER! A high pain threshold is helpful but I think you hafta be born with that. I have antibiotic bandaids on hand at all times, too.

I hate when that happens! And when it does, like it did yesterday, there's always some comedian around to tell my grandson to tell me that, "They have a tool for that. . .it's called a potholder." Twerp. (Not him, just his dad.)

Alcohol and over-the-counter drugs will make you, but not the burn, feel better, and it's difficult to conduct life while walking around with a bag of frozen peas molded around your fingers, or while that hand is plunged into a glass of ice water. You will be blowing on or shaking that hand in the air every time you remove it from the cold.

Go to the drugstore and get some antiseptic burn gel. It is cooling and soothing and has stuff that ends with "-caine." Using it will allow you to perform everyday tasks that require the application of heat that you otherwise might not think twice about, like showering or shampooing or blowing your hair dry. Do you know what it's like to blow dry a burn? Do you know how hard it is to blow-dry hair using just one hand? A tube of burn gel is a lot less fussy to use than a bag of frozen peas, and it beats taking cool showers for the next two or three days.

The f-bomb is a great cure, even better in combination with the s-bomb and both of their many variants. Not as good as the cold glass of whiskey cure, but darn close. The next injury, Sadassa_Ulna is my go-to.

Suck it up . . .it is the all part of cooking. The scares and burns on my hands all have a story and I am proud of them. Sorry for not having any sympathy, but as my mum would allows say, " Soak it and we will look at it in the morning!"

I haven't tried it yet, but I had a chef that always said acidity helps pain. Apply a raw tomato or 50/50 vinegar and water mixture to get the right ph. If it's an open wound, don't put anything on it.

Speaking of burns. I've started using welder's gloves/Foundry gloves for pot holders.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=foundry+gloves&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14076986029257422277&sa=X&ei=2wuuTb3VOcPA0QG7uam8Cw&ved=0CCwQ8wIwAg#

Unlike the silicon gloves, which are great in their own right for dealing with liquids, they aren't slippery and have fingers that help with stability for moving hot stuff from the oven, and they're perfect for shucking oysters.

Oh dear! That was my Sunday evening! Cold water or ice immediately to stop the skin from cooking anymore. Then I usually keep my hand on a covered ice pack for a while longer (10 minutes) just because it feels better. Then, I smear it with aloe and/or vaseline and wrap it with a cloth or bandage to keep it from coming into contact with things. Oh, and then I sit around telling myself "just because you're in pain doesn't mean you have to suffer..." (that part usually doesn't help much, but I try.)

Ice is only good in the first few seconds of a burn. Think of it as a chill to stop the 'carry over cooking time'. After that it just feels good but it will make it hurt even worse when you remove the ice. If you don't have aloe, cucumber slices will help. "Ora gell" the stuff you use for toothaches can also help with the pain. Good Luck!

I used to work in a foundry ages ago and still the worse burns I've had where kitchen burns.

I did the same thing a week ago, making dymnyno's Lazy Mary's Improved Lemon Tart. It was worth the burns, and I made it again this past weekend.

I'd started out thinking I'd have a baking sheet a level down to catch leakage. After the blind baking, I decided that the tart pan should be right on the baking sheet. I ended up with big burns at the base of my thumb, on the rest of my thumb, and on three other fingers.

Fortunately, I knew to immediate run my hand in cold water and then I let it soak in water with a little ice. Since then, I've become a huge fan of Second Skin products. The moist burn pads make your skin look like you've been in the water for days (in fact you have), but work great. For my worst blister, I used a moist burn pad, put a regular band aid over it for a little more padding, and then sealed it on with either a stretch self-gripping tape or an adhesive tape. Second Skin blister pads are also good. I changed the dressings every day. The first day, I dabbed a little aloe vera gel on before the dressing. After that, there wasn't any pain, so I used a little neosporin instead. I stopped that after I was sure I wasn't getting any infections.

And yes, the Sadassa_Ulna treatment. That one is also good for the common cold.

I use the gel packs we keep in the freezer for sports injuries, wrapped in an old (thin, that is) tea towel and then tied on my arm. I know this is closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out, but I find that the sooner I get the cold pack directly onto the burn (as in, within seconds), the less it swells, the less it hurts and the sooner it heals. Neosporin with pain reliever is also wonderful stuff, to put on later, after you remove the ice pack. As is aloe. I've gotten a lot fewer arm burns since I started wearing a cook's jacket in the kitchen, by the way. Hope you feel better soon. ;o)

Voted the Best Reply!

Wrap your burned fingers around a glass filled with ice and whiskey; use only that hand to bring the glass to your lips for drinking the cool liquid. Refill as needed. The burn might not go away but you might feel better about it ;)

Don't pop the blisters! I second the Neosporin and bandage thing, but fingertips are so hard to keep bandaged! Try smearing the Neosporin on your fingers and then putting your hand in a cotton glove or clean cotton sock at night. Todd will get over it. ;-)

Some of my worst burns have been from sheet pans. Yes, cool water over ice, or put some and ice in a ziplock, add water, wrap in a side towel, and use that. You want the cooling effect without frying your skin. And I know this is going to sound idiotic given where your burns are, but they'll heal faster with Neosporin and being bandaged. Maybe you could at least wrap them up at night. So sorry!

Darn those baking sheet burns! Use Ibuprofen or Tylenol for pain relief. Ice can actually make a burn worse. Instead, run cool water over it. Aloe vera also brings some relief. If a blister forms do not open it up. You want to avoid infection. Hope it feels better soon!